This is a re-read from back in March. I stand by my prior review.
This is another re-read. Or actually, re-watch. The first time I listened to the audiobook version, but this time I watched the visual lecture. I think this book is better in the video format, because it lets you see maps of military movements and drawings and various works of arts. Otherwise I stand by that prior review from two years ago.
Oddly enough, these lecture series are by the same lecturer. I think he’s a good, but not great lecturer. The biggest problem I had was with pronunciation. Particularly when speaking Turkish, Arabic or Persian names, he sometimes got them wrong. Now I don’t speak Turkish, Arabic or Persian. However I noticed that one moment he’d pronounce the names one way, and another time he’d pronounce them a different way. Not a big problem, but notable.
Also, as a lecturer I feel that in the Ottoman lecture series in particular the lecturerer defaulted to discussing military campaigns. I feel like in the Ottoman series (and the Byzantine series to a lesser extent) the lecturer could have discussed arts, architecture, food, culture and religion more. The Ottoman series was somewhat dry, talking about one sultan’s military campaigns followed by the next. I feel more energy could have been devoted to talking about how different inventions impacted the Empire, like the printing press. Or how New World currency inflation impacted the silver-based economy. These things were mentioned, but didn’t go very deep into it.
John Mendez- Book Reviews and More 